The DHL Stormers ran out 39 31 victors over the Toyota Cheetahs on Friday in a Super Rugby warmup match and while Allister Coetzee is happy with the way his team upped the intensity from their previous game he must be wondering what kind of horrible person he was in a past life as he had 3 players starting player leave the field with injury concerns

Locks Manuel Carizza and Eben Etzebeth both left the field in the first half, the former was clutching his shoulder while Etzebeth took a blow to the chest. Both players were sent for scans today(Monday) but word from the Stormers camp is that Etzebeth would likely miss the season opener against the Bulls at Loftus.

The bruising lock was ruled out of last seasons campaign after injuring his ankle at a lineout, if he is indeed ruled out that would force the coaches to once again pick number7 flank Michael Rhodes at lock as Ruan Botha and Gerbrandt Grobler are still out of action.

Tall winger Kobus van Wyk sustained a calf injury and was replaced by EW Viljoen who then sustained a blow to the head, van Wyk will also be sent for scans.

On the positive front Coetzee declared himself happy with the performances of Vincent Koch, Nic Groom and Louis Schruder. The coach believes that Groom is really maturing and making better decisions while Shreuder looks to have shaken off the two step pass habit

@Culling Song (Comment 7) : Stormers should sell that softie to the Sharks. I wouldn’t welcome that at all, no sir!

Comment 10, posted at 02.02.15 13:09:06 by vanmartin

@vanmartin (Comment 10) : Playing with 6 members of the Bok pack at provincial level will do his game the world of good… I also don’t want him at the Sharks, but would bear it for the greater good…

Comment 11, posted at 02.02.15 13:21:27 by Culling Song

@vanmartin (Comment 10) : The biggest hurdle to the Sharks acquiring Eben would be that we would have to put up with Saffex’s whining about how the Sharks have once again failed to develop one of their own youngsters, and also failed to give Tyler Fisher an opportunity

I dont think conditioning would make much of a difference tbh – Eben is in pretty decent shape, just seems to get tad unlucky.
No conditioning in the world would protect against an injury like Jeans knee.

@VinChainSaw (Comment 13) : I was questioning the Stormers’ injury situation in general more than I was specifically referring to Eben (and purely because I’m not familiar with the Stormers coaching setup at all). Eben strikes me as the kind of guy who exited the womb ready to play a full length rugby match.

It’s a fair questions I think. I do, however think it’s too easy to make the jump of “many injuries = poor technique or poor coaching”. Sometime it’s just really sh!tty luck and every side goes through it from time to time.

What I have noticed, however, is how many players of late come back from injury simply to get injured again.
Perhaps its related to the speed og the game (theyre not 100% up to speed) menaing theyre hitting a collision slightly later than usual, or getting their head/shoulder/led in the wrong place or falling slightly skew on a leg and ending up getting injured again.

Comment 18, posted at 02.02.15 19:37:41 by VinChainSaw

@VinChainSaw (Comment 18) : I agree and add to that the mental aspect of an injury which in my view dors not get dealy with properly

Comment 19, posted at 02.02.15 20:06:51 by benji

@VinChainSaw (Comment 18) : I personally think players get rushed back into big competitions like Super rugby whilst their bodies are not ready. In the old days players would play a couple of club games before being recalled to the provincial team but now with professionalism players must perform and can’t be risked in club games so they have no way (other than practice sessions) to get back up to “speed”.